Christine Kermaire (1953-)
Christine Kermaire is a Belgian book artist with work in many museums and libraries across the world such as the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Fine Arts Library of Harvard University to name a few. Pickler Memorial Library’s Special Collections has been gifted several art books from Kermaire. Her art books cover a wide variety of topics such as the interaction of technology with healthcare and our everyday lives. Her artistry shines through in her handmade books.
This page features just three out of several books by Kermaire in Pickler’s Special Collections. They are Strokephone (2014), I Listen to the Snow Shrouding Me Forever (2010), and a miniature book series about Al-Mutanabbi Street (2011). Kermaire’s work is interesting as it is hard to identify exactly what her work means. She has no artist website, social media, nor interviews. This adds an element of mystery and self-interpretation in a world where we feel a strong desire to know the meaning behind much of the art and literature we consume. Kermaire disseminates her work by sending copies of her artist books to universities, art institutes, libraries, and museums across the United States and internationally.
Al-Mutanabbi Street Miniature Book Series (2011-2012)
On March 5th 2007, a car bomb was exploded on Al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. The bomb resulted in the death of 30 people and more than 100 people were wounded. Al-Mutanabbi Street was a historic center of Baghdad bookselling, hold bookstores and outdoor bookstalls, cafes, stationery shops, and even tea and tobacco shops. It was the intellectual heart and soul of Baghdad. The Al-Mutanabbi Street Broadside Project called on artists to complete three books that reflect both the strength and fragility of books, as well as the endurance of the ideas they carry.
Kermaire created three miniature books about the Al-Mutanabbi Street explosion. They are titled, Resilience of Al-Mutanabbi Street (2011), Memory of Al-Mutanabbi Street (2012), and Future of Al-Mutanabbi Street (2012). Resilience of Al-Mutanabbi Street (2011) is a 9 cm tall accordion fold book with red fragments of an Arabic translation from Kant’s Critique of pure reason pasted to gray paper. It is stitched in red silk thread, with trailing ends. The book cover is a hand-made balsa wood case. Memory of Al-Mutanabbi Street (2012) is a 9cm tall book with four strips of paper folded like an accordion. Each strip of paper unfolds to reveal the names of victims who died in the bombing.
Future of Al-Mutanabbi Street (2012) is the last book in the series and its height is 9 cm. This book opens to reveal nine miniature books attached to the book. Each small book contains the same quote: “I whose literature the blind perceived and and whose words those who are deaf heard.” Together, the three books create a book series that commemorated the 2007 car bombing on al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. Although the series consists of three miniature books, they are packed with emotion and a message about the loss of life, literature, and culture lost in the bombing.